And Baby Makes Four. Mary J. Forbes

when their plane crashed into the mountain forest, breaking branches and small tree trunks, swathing a path of demolition and death.

      He tried not to think of his little boy alone in the world, crying for him. Or of Johnny attempting to console Danny. Raising Danny….

      “I’m right beside you,” Lee said into the headphones when the plane began to move.

      He listened to her voice while she ran through a list of checks—rudders, flaps, fuel gage—and gave their coordinates to the Renton tower before the plane skimmed the ocean, lifted, buzzed into the sky.

      He heard the tone of her words more than their meaning. That assured tone. The quiet, steady tone.

      And when he bit the inside of his cheek, he felt her fingers curve around his forearm. “You’ll be okay with me,” she promised.

      And, in that moment, he believed her. He really did.